BETTER PROGRESS 



may have it really fine to-morrow. I read some of 

 Shakespeare's comedies to-day. 



November 9. — A different story to-day. When we 

 woke up at 4.30 a.m. it was fine, calm and clear, such 

 a change from the last four days. We got breakfast 

 at 5 a.m., and then dug the sledges out of the drift. 

 After this we four walked out to find a track amongst 

 the crevasses, but unfortunately they could only be 

 detected by probing with our ice-axes, and these dis- 

 closed all sorts, from narrow cracks to great ugly chasms 

 with no bottom visible. A lump of snow thrown down 

 one would make no noise, so the bottom must have 

 been very far below. The general direction was south- 

 east and north-west, but some curved round to the 

 south and some to the east. There was nothing for 

 it but to trust to Providence, for we had to cross them 

 somewhere. At 8.30 a.m. we got under way, the ponies 

 not pulling very well, for they have lost condition in 

 the blizzard and were stiff. We got over the first few 

 crevasses without difficulty, then all of a sudden China- 

 man went down a crack which ran parallel to our 

 course. Adams tried to pull him out and he struggled 

 gamely, and when Wild and I, who were next, left our 

 sledges and hauled along Chinaman's sledge, it gave 

 him more scope, and he managed to get on to the firm 

 ice, only just in time, for three feet more and it would 

 have been all up with the southern journey. The 

 three-foot crack opened out into a great fathomless 

 chasm, and down that would have gone the horse, all 

 our cooking gear and biscuits and half the oil, and 

 probably Adams as well. But when things seem the 

 worst they turn to the best, for that was the last crevasse 

 we encountered, and with a gradually improving 

 surface, though very soft at times, we made fair head- 



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